CHURCHES IN BRIEF
England: delegation pays visit to the Holy SeeOn February 14-15 a British government delegation led by Baroness Sayeeda Warsi paid an official visit to the Vatican on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of full diplomatic relations between the United Kingdom and the Holy See in 1982. The visit follows Benedict XVI’s Visitation to Great Britain in September 2010, marking the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman. During the working visit the Secretary for the Holy See’s Relations with States, Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, hosted talks with the delegation, that also met with the Secretary of State His Eminence Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, and was received by His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI. In her speech at the Pontifical Ecclesiastic Academy and to the members of the Diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See Baroness Sayeeda Warsi (born in the United Kingdom to Pakistani parents, Muslim) exhorted Europe "to be more confident in its Christian heritage". "People need to feel stronger in their religious identities, more confident in their beliefs", she added. The Baroness reiterated the Pope’s warning in a speech in Westminster Hall regarding the risks of "the marginalization of religion from the public sphere". For this reason, "politicians need to give faith a seat at the table in public life" for the contribution it can offer to "the understanding of contemporary problems". "It has been my privilege to accompany the delegation from Her Majesty’s Government to the Holy See, following the visit of Pope Benedict to the UK and marking the 30th anniversary of full diplomatic relations", said Archbishop Vincent Nichols. “I thank Baroness Warsi for her leadership of this delegation and for her address, calling on people of religious belief to be confident in expressing it and urging public discourse and institutions to be open to the positive contributions made by faith to the common good".Slovakia: card. Rylko on the laity and societyThe faithful should become real leaven of the Gospel in the heart of the world. Not just stay outside as observers but "step inside the world of culture, economics, politics" and transform it "in accordance with the spirit of the Gospel".The president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, Cardinal Stanislaw Rylko, thus addressed the members of the Forum of Christian Institutions on February 12, on the occasion of the pilgrimage to the Vatican, which closed on February 15. According to the cardinal’s words, "the basic fact for Christian identity of a lay believer is an importance of personal encounter with Christ". President of the Pontifical Council appealed to the members of Christian institutions to rediscover courage to be visibly present within society and called pilgrims "the protagonists of new evangelization" who play an important role in the missionary efforts of the Church. Cardinal recalled the message of St. Cyril and Methodius who brought Christian faith to the region of Great Moravia almost 1150 years ago, who even today give us an example of an authentic "missionary zeal, holiness and unity", reminding us about the roots we should always keep in our hearts and minds. This year’s edition of the Pilgrimage to the tomb of St. Cyril is led by the eparch of Bratislava, Mons. Peter Rusnak, president of the Council for lay and apostolic movements of the Bishops’ conference of Slovakia.Ukraine: law on the freedom of conscienceThe Ministry of Culture of Ukraine supported opinion of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations regarding inadvisability of passing a new wording of the law on freedom of conscience and religious organizations. The statement was made by the first deputy minister of culture, Yurii Bohutskyi, at the session of the working group preparing bills in the area of freedom of worship at the end of last week. The Ministry of culture agreed with the proposals of the Churches and religious organizations to elaborate alterations to the laws in the area of activity of religious organizations, namely the laws on state registration of legal persons, on education, on restitution of the former Church property, on moratorium on privatization of religious buildings, etc. According to Bohutskyi, this approach is also supported by the Ministry of justice of Ukraine. The session of the working group was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Culture, Secretariat of the All-Ukrainian council of Churches and religious organizations and the Institute for religious freedom.
